In order to improve child safety when taking children in automobiles, it is advisable to provide a child seat when the child being carried is too small to use one of the normal three point harnesses or seatbelts. Typical child seats are provided as separate seats which can be attached to the automobile and which are appropriately sized and shaped to hold small children in a safe manner. Typical child seats come in a variety of designs, some of which are intended for fixing to the backseat or the front seat of an automobile, or indeed both. Further, designs for child seats include forward facing and rear facing designs, these direction being determined by the forward and backward directions in the automobile.
Several designs of child seats include a three or four point harness which is used to hold the baby or child within the seat. Other designs also include a lap cushion or restraint which is positioned over the lap or stomach of the child when in the seat, so as to hold the child within the seat in a safe manner and to support the child should an accident occur. It is typical for these lap cushion or restraints to interface with the standard seatbelts provided within the automobile, with the lap restraint being provided with a slot, or the like, such that the seatbelt in the automobile can be positioned in front of the lap restraint and thus hold this in place. This system improves the safety to the child, as both the child seat harness and the seatbelt attached to the car are used to secure the child should an accident occur.
Current child seat designs are typically provided in one or other of the forward or rearward facing orientations. That is, most child seats are provided with either a front or rearward facing design, thus limiting the choice for the child, and thus restricting the possibility of allowing the child to face the front or the rear of the car as the child may desire. Further, integrating the child seat with the seatbelt positioned in the automobile, either with or without the means of the lap restraint or cushion, further hinders the possibility of adjusting the orientation and location of the child seat. Finally, many child seats are in a fixed orientation, and cannot be tipped forward or backward. This reduction in the tipping options of the child seat is further hampered by utilising the seatbelt of the automobile to fix the child seat within the automobile.
Additionally, there are real problems with child seat misuse, where the child seat is not properly connected to the car, or is not used exactly as the seat was intended. This is particularly a problem when the child seat is supposed to be connected to the car by means of the inbuilt car seat belts. Additionally, if the child seat has several possible orientations or different fixing possibilities, the possibility of user error greatly increases. Unfortunately, the safety performance of a child seat is dramatically impaired when it is not correctly fitted or properly constructed.